2019-03-17 06:38 pm

I'm working on a big orchestral score with a lot of instruments, so many that they cant fit in a page unless you can use a microscope to read.The solution is to use a "french" style score in which the instruments that don't play in that page are simply omitted.Of course I use the "Collapse" option in boundary change for this. The problem is that, with a screenful of notes, it's very easy to forget one "EndCollapse" and checking the whole score with the print preview is boring.

My idea is as follows: a simple (I think) tool that sets the color of all the objects (in its wide sense, not in the sense of "plugins") between "Collapse" and "EndCollapse" in every staff to a color of user choice. In this way it's immediate to see what will "disappear" when printing.Returning later the whole score to the default color is not a big problem, but if the tool could do this too would be the top.

Yes, of course, but that's not my need.What I need is to be sure to collapse what can be collapsed but, in special mode, to be sure to close every collapsed section.If I forget an "EndCollapse" I can miss a part and, very easily, I'll detect it when it's too late (i.e. after printing).

I always put the "collapse" and "end collapse" in at the same time. You don't have to be exact - just place the "collapse" at the first place where it can take place and the "end collapse" at the first place you need to see that part again. The program will take care of any rests that are needed to fill in the staves before and after.

This little lua-script can help coloring objects in collapsed sections.

This script supposes that every object in the collapsed section has the color-option. If this is not the case, I don't know what happens with your score. It may corrupt your file !!! So, use with care.

The code should be self explanatory and can be adapted if more options are needed.

I put together a JavaScript tool to handle multi bar rests and collapsing staves a few years ago. After downloading it (remember where it is), install a new tool (you will have to assign it a group and name) and browse to where you parked it. Put "wscript " before the path and, following a space, copy the two prompts from the 4th line of this script to the end of that line.

I didn't remember that your mmr tool adds Boundary collapse and cancel collapse around the multi measure rests.That's ok if I use multi measure rests in every part I want to collapse.A little problem is that it seems to work on a single staff each time, not the whole file at once.Thank you anyway

That's a very nice tool. I have one suggestion that will help it deal with multi-staff scores a bit better. Currently, if you have a staff which has a collapse section which is not followed by an end collapse, then the coloring will wrap around to the next staff. This is obviously not desirable. Adding a single line of code, at the top of the for loop, will address this:

... that's why I use only standard rests in the concert pitch score; and introduce MMRs only in the print view, which is created mechanically from the concert pitch score. I think this separation of "working score [staves]" and "printing score [staves]" is quite useful as a "separation of concerns" tool - this is one reason.

For me, when I need a run of rests within a collapsed section, I use regular rests rather than MMRs. Like @hmmueller, I only use MMRs when I want them to print as such. It makes page up/down through multiple staves much easier.

N.B. In my case there is a problem: the score is in 2/4 and the full measure rests are 2/4, not whole rests.

I have a staff with rehearsal marks, comments etc. meant to be overlayed to the top ordinary staff (or the instrument staff in case of a part).The problem is that when the top ordinary staff is collapsed the overlayed staff is still visible... alone.

Me. The process is straightforward - mark all, copy it, transpose it, audit notestems for all staves; and then go over the complete score and do e.g. MMR replacements, various alignments (which I usually copy back into the concert pitch score) and, on the whole, re-read and re-think the whole music ...

I have a staff with rehearsal marks, comments etc. meant to be overlayed to the top ordinary staff (or the instrument staff in case of a part).The problem is that when the top ordinary staff is collapsed the overlayed staff is still visible... alone.

Yes, this is a nuisance - it kills my concept of having various topmost formatting staves (esp. for breaks at bars) at times. "Overlay with next visible staff" would be a nice feature ...

Me. The process is straightforward - mark all, copy it, transpose it, audit notestems for all staves; and then go over the complete score and do e.g. MMR replacements, various alignments (which I usually copy back into the concert pitch score) and, on the whole, re-read and re-think the whole music ...

I don't understand if you're talking about the file path or the file type.The path yes, it works with all the NWC tools.The file type no. wscript doesn't work with any .js (even outside of NWC, of course.)

I don't know why either. From what I read, there may be keys in the Registry that affect this. The articles are not clear. I thought of offering the suggestion a day or so ago, but I didn't want to look like a fool.I'm glad it worked for you.